In 1996, a fire broke out in a rental home in North Carolina.

One child died.

Another was critically injured.

To the family, the fire was a mystery.

To investigators, it was murder.

The fire broke out in a rental home in North Carolina.

A small rural sweet potato farming community in the western part of the state and home to the Henson family.

Joshua Henson and his sister, Brittany, lived with their mother, Terry and her boyfriend, Rodney Strickland.

Rodney worked in construction.

Terry was a homemaker and student.

On October 19, 1996, Rodney left to spend the night with his son and fairblaught about 15 miles away.

Terry's mother, Bernice, came over to the house that night for dinner.

I was there when she took Brittany and Josh upstairs to bed.

And as they were going upstairs to bed, the last words I heard Josh say is I love you.

Because he was just running to town.

After Bernice left, Terry plugged in a space heater to heat the home since it was the first cold night of fall.

She fell asleep on the sofa in the living room around midnight.

At 4 a.m., Terry was awakened by screams from her children.

The house was on fire.

The thick smoke and flames made it impossible to reach the children.

The only thing Terry could do was call the fire department.

The police arrived first and an officer also tried to rescue the children.

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